I have loved movies for most of my life. They have affected the way that I look at life, at relationships, even at faith. I've preached sermon series about movies, and I'm convinced that Hollywood isn't missing out at not using the Bible as an almost-endless supply of source material (and no, I'm not talking about junk like 'Left Behind'). The Bible is filled with terrific stories of intrigue, sex, violence, and forgiveness. Just look at the book of Judges or the lives of Saul and David. I'm preaching through David's life right now in fact and would think that the story of David and Bathsheba definitely ought to be made a movie. Michael Douglas as the aged king who falls from nobility into lechery. Some young hollywood babe to be Bathsheba. Al Pacino as Joab, the military commander who has a past of his own. Denzel Washington as Uriah, a man sent from the palace carrying his own death orders.
Instead, we get Fast and Furious, part six. Oh well.
But I have other ideas as well. One of them takes the best elements of The Hunger Games, Death Race, Running Man, and our current resentment and fascination of the wealth class of this country.
Imagine a dystopian future (they are all that, these days)...the wealth have secluded themselves into little islands of fortune, while the rest of civilization is poor, strung out, and does nothing but seek entertainment. Revolution is in the air, but it is stifled...why? The biggest show in entertainment: Buy Your Life. (OK, I know...better titles can be made than this...but we're just brainstorming here). Once a month the wealthy offer up a sacrifice to the proletarian masses. In an arena, the wealth superstar (picked at random, of course, or so it seems) has to defend his/her life in some way. Maybe it's in mortal combat with killer. Maybe it's in escaping from a hunt by expert hunters. Maybe it's in a race to buy their freedom by making an agreement with a group of rag-tag people who might (or might not) be able to be bought. The beauty of this is that the rules of the game are always changing...and there is a chance for freedom, or a chance for death. Sometimes the end is gruesome...a beautiful heiress gets raped and tortured. Sometimes the end is heart-warming...the wealthy creep pays for a new, well-maintained village for a few hundred families out of his fortune and finally learns the most important lesson of life.
The first 20 minutes set up this world...but what then? There's several ways to go. One of them is about how the game is rigged...maybe a business tycoon pays off the 'random selection' committee in order to have his main rival put into the arena. Maybe a trophy wife, having had her husband caught, sells him in much the same way. Or maybe, just maybe, we find out that the people being sacrificed all along were not the wealthy ones. Instead, they were stand-ins for somebody else. The powerful continue to get their own way, and the poor are instead unknowingly killing their own.
Maybe it's a personal story about an oblivious young wealthy person who gets entered into the arena. He's done some bad things, but nothing too horrible, but his name is selected. At first he is terrified and does all the wrong things, but eventually his heart and his courage (not to mention his good looks) make him into somebody that the viewers can identify with. What's this? Can we really root for the rich man? But I'm not sure where this story ends up.
Or maybe it's a story of the sneering wealthy guy whose death is not enough. The arena erupts, and violence begins spilling out into the streets. If one wealthy person is killed, why not all of them? Homes are invaded, rebellion comes, and a new world order comes out of it all.
Maybe somebody competent will take this idea and run with it. But I think it's a good start. I'd pay to see this...or at least get it from Redbox.
